We allowed Ruth and Dave approximately 10 days in their new country of choice before landing on their doorstep – or more specifically their sofa bed. As far as sofa beds go it is pretty comfy and I would certainly recommend it although the upstairs neighbours will wake you at 4.30 each morning by having their noisy alarm on snooze several times and then by tramping up and down on the noisiest floorboards in the northern hemisphere. Of course the jet lag doesn’t help…
On our first day here we went on a whirlwind tour of Vancouver. Despite Ruth and Dave’s assurances that it always rains in Vancouver it was a beautiful day. We got the ferry across to downtown – so much more civilised than the tube – and walked into the city. We stopped for a coffee (or hot chocolate depending on the level of your caffeine dependency) and Stuart created a new sport: Dodge Ram spotting.
Then it was on to Stanley Park and the Aquarium. Highlights here were certainly the dolphin display and the beluga whales who appear to be made out of marshmallows. The onion rings were pretty good too! Next we walked around Lost Lagoon to the beach and then along to Granville Island, via the seabus. If Dave and Ruth offer to take you on a tour of Vancouver, take my advice and wear comfy shoes! We finally arrived home via the organic supermarket.
On Monday it rained. Lots. Dave and Stuart set off to get a roof rack fitted to Dave’s Toyota Corolla and Ruth introduced me to Flickr. Later we went to a Mall and were introduced to the delights of a Canadian food court (so much nicer than at home) and had fun in Walmart looking at everything from lingerie to guns to John Deere dinner services.
On Tuesday we ignored Zoe’s advice and travelled to Tofino on Vancouver Island. By this stage Dave’s driving was improving and he only needed occasional reminders of which side of the road to drive on. The ferry took about an hour and a half with amazing views. Outside was pretty windy and resulted in some amusing photos of silly hair. It took about 3 hours to drive from Nanaimo, across Vancouver Island to Tofino. One thing you will see a lot of in Vancouver Island (at least in February anyway) is weather. We had sun, cloud, hail, sleet and snow several times over during our journey.
Despite what Zoe said (when trying to put us off going) Tofino is lovely. A little town on the edge of the world. We dumped our stuff and went off to explore Chesterman Beach. Only slightly alarmed by the tsunami warning signs! Did a little shopping and went for a coffee / hot chocolate. Went to the Schooner restaurant for dinner which was most civilised. Fortunately we’d booked as despite it being a Tuesday night out of season the place was packed. I had fabulous fish and seafood. Stuart had an interesting experience with some wasabi! Our first night was spent in a ’suite’ which was fine. Unfortunately we lost electricity in the morning and all had to shower by candle light. When we mentioned it to the owners they said ‘You didn’t try to have the coffee machine and the toaster on at the same time did you?’.
The next morning our plans were some what delayed by Ruth losing her wallet (allegedly not a rare occurrence). So we searched the suite and then started to retrace our steps from the previous day. Stuart and I heroically agreed to search the coffee shop while Ruth and Dave traipsed around the shops and eventually ended up at the police station. While Stuart and I were tucking into breakfast at the coffee shop it turned out ‘Gordie’ had found the wallet in the street and it was handed back to a most relieved Ruth. (Mrs Hartnup – if you are reading this I totally made that last bit up and Ruth didn’t lose anything!).
It has to be said the weather on this day was even worse than the previous day. It rained and rained and rained. We went up to a view point but could see nothing but cloud. Stuart and Dave collected lichen while discussing the geniusness of Ray Mears.
As Brits abroad we were not to be beaten by the rain so it was off to the golf course and a game of mini golf in driving rain. The bloke in the pro golf shop obviously thought we were mad and gave us a discount! Hitting a ball into a water filled hole is not so easy but Ruth was quite happy in her new red co-op wellies. Dave kept score on Stuart’s waterproof notebook and only realised several hours later that he’d had an umbrella in his pocket all along. For the record Dave won but as Stuart pointed out he was doing the scoring… As we couldn’t get any wetter we decided to go onto Long beach. Stuart and Dave stayed in the car but Ruth and I braved the rain for long enough to see mad people go surfing.
For our second night in Tofino we stayed in a cabin on the beach. It was beautiful and really secluded. The cabin itself was pretty small. French windows opened onto a deck. Just inside the french windows was a double bed, sofa and most importantly wood burner. At the back of this room was the kitchen with the bathroom off to the side. Up the stairs / ladder was a Heidi style attic with twin beds. We had a lovely evening playing cards while Dave and Stuart burnt stuff. Dave proudly made fire with lichen and his fire stick. Ruth and I were convinced we’d seen a sea lion although Dave maintains it was driftwood!
I woke up early the next morning to the sound of Ruth taking photos. I wondered what on earth she was doing until I opened the curtains to discover a couple of inches of snow. Apparently I let out quite a gasp! It was time for a new experience – being on the beach in the snow in our pyjamas! Many photos later we had breakfast while Stuart and Dave lit the wood burner despite us having to check out in an hour’s time. While packing up we saw 3 sea otters swimming in the bay.
So we’d seen Tofino in the sunshine and in the driving rain, now it was the snow day. We considered a rematch of mini golf but opted for Long Beach instead. It looked beautiful covered in snow and there were still mad people surfing. We drove on to Ucluelet for a gorgeous lunch and then it was back over the mountains to catch the return ferry. This time Stuart took the wheel but we made it in one piece. On the ferry on the way back we saw dolphins swimming alongside the boat which was quite exciting. Ruth and I spent the remainder of the journey scanning the horizon for more wildlife but with no joy.
We had one evening in Vancouver to re-pack (and collect Dave’s new computer). Dave and I went on a mini adventure to find some Chinese food and in the process managed to make out the street system in Canada. We stuffed our faces with Chinese and packed all the snowboard gear.
The next morning Simon arrived and the boys spent a while loading the three board bags onto the new roof rack. Then we set out for Whistler. We ignored the flapping noise coming from the roof and the signs telling us to go no further without winter tyres or snow chains. We continued through the snow and eventually arrived. The others all piled up the mountain while I wandered around the shops and drank yet more hot chocolate. Bought Stuart a cool coat and myself a very pink very furry jumper. Finally got into our apartment and it was worth the wait. Huge, with the best equipped kitchen ever. We headed out for a meal and strangely enough ended up in an Irish pub which served Guinness and huge meals.
The next day even I couldn’t put off the boarding any longer. However my fears were slightly lessened by the gorgeous soft snow. In fact it didn’t stop snowing for the next 48 hours! I won’t attempt to go into detail about the snowboarding except to say the others had a great time and I didn’t hate it! In fact I did turns and everything! Stuart and Dave had both bought GPS gizmos which recorded not only how far they had been but how fast! Obviously no one was immature enough to try and beat their speed record on each run!
On Monday Ruth and I both had a day off. Went off to the coffee shop to make the most of the free internet so Ruth could get her Flickr fix. Stuart came back early having hurt his knee and Dave and Simon came back tired.
I cooked everyone a fab roast dinner. All was going swimmingly until I pushed a lever on the oven to see what it would do. Unfortunately what it did was to lock the oven until it cooled down (something to do with the self clean mode!?!). For a while we had to face the prospect of a roast dinner without roast potatoes which were locked inside. I started cooking emergency mashed potatoes but thankfully before the vegetables were ready the oven released the roasties!!
Following a massive dinner and a few bottles of wine we felt obliged to introduce Simon to the joys of ‘My name is Earl’. Many hours later we headed to bed but not before it had been agreed that Dave is Earl’s brother Randy’s double!!
Tuesday was sunny! Nothing fell from the sky until after dark so there were views aplenty up the mountain. Stuart and his bad knee were left behind to tidy the apartment while the rest of us headed up the gondola. Dave cooked in the evening as I wasn’t to be trusted with the oven. Then it was time for more ‘Earl’ before bed.
Wednesday and the weather was back to snowy. Very snowy. We had to check out by 10am so packed everything into the car. Ruth, Dave and Simon headed out for a last day’s boarding and Stuart and I spent many hours in Blenz coffee house (no Flickr due to no internet access from Whistler to Squamish).
Thursday was Dave’s birthday so we all agreed he should decide what we did for the day. After a while we could stand his indecision no longer so went for brunch at Milestones. Nice food and lots of it. We went for a walk along the beach and got the boat over to Granville Island. The food market was amazing and while Simon and I salivated over all the fresh fish and seafood Dave went on a shopping spree for dinner.
Back in North Vancouver we collected the car and headed over to MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-operative). Dave had a minor ‘Randy’ moment and drove along the pavement – sorry, sidewalk! We thought he probably shouldn’t do that in his driving test. Stuart went mad in MEC and tried to buy all kinds of things. Then we headed over to Canadian Tire (kind of like a cross between Homebase and Halfords) which some of us found more exciting than others!
On Friday it was time to pack up and go home. Had a thoroughly unhealthy lunch in Tim Hortons followed rapidly by a second lunch in McDonalds as we were all still hungry. Unfortunately the 40 minute journey to the airport took 3 hours and we almost missed the flight (not sure who was more worried about this prospect – us or Dave and Ruth!). However we made it by the skin of our teeth and set off home.
All in all we had a fantastic holiday and I would recommend Canada whole heartedly.
Never written a blog before so not sure how to end…
Recent Comments